The main brief for Tabard Works was to repurpose the building and add extra value, by transforming it into a modern ‘plug and play’ office space with breakout facilities that can work smarter and more efficiently, for any type of occupier or business. The key element of this plug and play office scheme was to be as cost-efficient as possible, and to achieve this we started with a targeted strip out and demolition package, focusing on repurposing as much as possible of the previous tenant’s installation.
“To maintain the balance between cost and design to ensure the project remained viable whilst not compromising on the look and feel was another challenge our team successfully achieved.”
During the strip out phase, we worked closely with our client and the architects Silver & Co, to fine-tune the phase two scheme. At this stage, the refurbishment focused on the exterior of the building, the common areas, reception, the basement (now known as the bunker) and fully fitting out the 2nd-floor office space.
Finding inspiration in the famous Borough of London, the architects envisioned the exterior of the building as a large-scale doodle. To make their vision a reality we painted the whole building black and worked with the artist Marc Craig whose talent and free-style drawing has given the building a unique look. Inside the building, we redecorated the main staircase and installed new lighting, floor, and feature wall finishes. We also overhauled the WCs with new basins, lighting and fixtures.
The challenge in creating a functional space for the basement was to eliminate the damp originating from the floor first. Our works here focused on cleaning and treating the damp, to prevent future outbreaks. To add heating, cooling and ventilation systems we had to reconfigure the M&E layout and refurbish the WC and shower facilities, along with the kitchenette and install a new containment system. Then the space was fully redecorated including the concrete floor, exposed lighting and finished with new furniture, fixtures and fittings including a table tennis table, works that made this plug and play office take shape.
The reception of this plug and play office scheme is now an open-plan space – with accessible WCs and office space to the rear – and through its unique design features and colour scheme, moves away from the usual reception space. Our team installed partitions to form this new space, decorated the walls and laid a custom-made carpet.
The 2nd floor had a new screeded floor laid which was sealed to give the space an authentic, raw feel. The slab ceilings were made good before meeting rooms were created and a new exposed containment system was installed to serve the new air conditioning, data, lighting, and fire alarm systems.
The space was fully redecorated and a break-out space including a kitchenette was created. New desks and chairs were installed along with fully fitted meeting rooms before soft furnishings and artwork were added. The building has also benefited from a new fire alarm installation, lift overhaul, new IT backbone, CCTV system, app-controlled access control, and wireless internet connectivity.
Towards the end of the phase one refurbishment, our client decided to get the remaining floors ready to fit-out, so we are staying on-site to install new screeded floor finishes, access control systems, fully decorate and leave capped services so these spaces are ready to go.
The main challenge on this plug and play office project was to maintain the balance between cost and design to ensure the project remained viable whilst not compromising on the look and feel. We worked closely with our client and spent many hours brainstorming with architects Silver & Co to ensure the brief was met.
At The Clove Building we have also created some plug and play office fit-outs on the first, second and third floors and we worked in collaboration with the architects at BGY to achieve some unique workplaces.
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